With just a little less than half of the 2018 sailing season left to enjoy, we’ve prepared this “mid-season” report card to Members to catch you up on some Club business and ideas shared at the Spring Meeting.
Since completing the draft of this Report Card, we also held our 2018 Member Survey. The feedback we received was excellent, thank you. We will be crunching through the survey results over the coming weeks as we start to draft our budget plans for 2019 – the survey is not yet part of this report.
Club Operations
Going Digital
Phase 1 of our new “club management software” is complete and all of our Member and Financial systems have been migrated on to the new system. Overall, it has gone well and permitted us to better manage inventory, billing and the Bar & Galley. We are very close to migrating our marine operations – moorings and yard management, for example.
Phase 2 is being cautiously rolled out with some pilots to use the software for booking Cranes and Club events and letting you manage some of your own data online. Our software is “PCI” (Payment Card Industry) compliant and you should know that NSC does NOT store your credit card information (something you will fully understand when your Credit Card expires).
We’ve also examined the way our system is deployed to help assure ourselves that your Sensitive Personal Information is not at risk. Its been a “journey” as we discover what our new software can – and can’t do – dedicated volunteers are crunching through the details.
Financial Performance & Membership Statistics
As of the end-of-June, our finances are on-track with both Revenue and Costs slightly increased from last year with revenue slightly ahead and no major concerns. Happily, our Membership numbers are ahead of last year and slightly ahead of budget.
The Galley
We are happy to welcome a new head chef at the helm of The Galley, meet Rony Griffin. While the change could have been very disruptive for NSC, Rony wisely chose to adopt the existing NSC system and menu at the start rather than re-vamp it immediately.
Rony is already planning some changes that should be obvious in the coming weeks. Notably, the average wait-times for meals has dropped. Significantly.
Boating
Harbour
96% of our available slips are occupied and the Club’s revenue from slip occupancy is at 98% of budget.
Docks
Thanks to your spectacular volunteer effort, some very careful planning and the effective use of paid help, the project to replace our “dock-tops” is ahead of schedule and about 35% ahead of budget. This is really great news for the balance of the project which is expected to take 3-4 years to complete.
Channel
With thanks for some volunteer time and spiffy technology, we have successfully created a detailed Navionics chart of the NSC “channel”. Now, the technical challenge: It appears that the data is only available to those who download Navionics charts to their fixed Chartplotters and that it can’t be made available to smartphones using the same charts. A technical mystery. More to come.
Racing and Regattas
Weeknight and weekend racing continue to be strong with participation stable or climbing very slightly – which is good news. We’ve already hosted four significant Regattas with a common theme being – that which we control has gone very well and that which we don’t – ie the wind and weather – is its usual challenge. Kudos to all the regatta organizers!
Exploring
Sunday Fundays
Sunday Fundays have been a clever experiment led by our Fleet Captain to gauge your interest in using Club boats on a Sunday afternoon.
Well, if judged by the popularity of the event … good interest from sailors who recently completed Advantage Boating’s dinghy training, and not-so-much from other club members. Interesting lesson-learned in terms of how we could make use of Club-owned boats. Dominic Goodwill plans to keep running the offer for the time being and is keen to get your ideas and inputs
Learn to Sail
Our Sailing School continues to be busy and successful with 340 students enrolled in various programs – Youth, Able and Learn to Race – right on track to last year’s performance. Revenues are down slightly as enrollments have shifted away from Racing but we’re confident that the School will make its budget objectives.
Community Events
Record participation in this year’s “Doors Open Ottawa” and “Get Out On The Water” events, a monumental effort to organize and a solid awareness-builder for sailing in the area and for NSC.
Garage Sale
Surprisingly, had some feedback this year that you missed the Nautical Garage Sale. Sorry about that, the feedback last year was “skip a year”.
Easter Seals
Our premier charity. Our main fundraising event – the annual Bring on the Bay swim – was another huge success. Over 600 swimmers and $62,295 raised for Easter Seals.
One change for 2018 was to separate the dates for the Swim and the Easter Seals Family Sail. Am happy to report that we found a date for the Family Sail on August 25 and do apologize for any inconvenience caused by the change in dates.
Baskin’s Beach
Scott Hayley jumped-in and formed a team to organize a spectacular event for Baskin’s Beach this year:
“On possibly one of the nicest weekends this summer, 30 boats and about 90 folks met up-river for our signature cruising rendezvous at Baskins Beach. Some by boat and some by road, old friends gathered and new friendships were formed.” Scott’s full description is available on nsc.ca
Belonging
Friday Night Members & Guests
This summer, we instituted a “members-and-guests-only policy” on Friday nights in the members’ lounge and on the deck. Since then, overall use of the Club on Friday nights has increased 34% compared to 2017. Participation by members has increased 73% while sales to non-members (guests of NSC members) are essentially unchanged from last summer. In previous years, some members complained they couldn’t find a seat on the deck on Friday nights. Since we introduced the members-and-guests rule, that problem seems to have disappeared.
Unless we’re misreading this, you like the new policy and it is working. Since this is your club and your night, we welcome your feedback and recommendations.
Galley-On-The-Go
The idea was to have a satellite grill open on Race nights. Overall, we’re concluding that its not a great idea – your use of it is very limited. Currently, the G2G grill is open on Thursday evenings only while we decide our next move.
If you have suggestions (including “good idea but…”), please let us know.
Social Program
At the Spring meeting, we set a target to make NSC’s social events part of your membership – ie. to “fund” social events like SailPast or THRASH and mitigate the need for tickets to be purchased.
So far, we’ve been able to meet that objective – only asking for small donations at Baskins. By the date of the Spring Meeting , THRASH had already taken place already and, at current course and speed, we will be able to refund those members for the cost of their tickets.
Your participation in NSC’s events so far has made them work. So far, the events are breaking-even.
Regalia
We have great NSC regalia, now available online. Having good quality regalia for our members is important. Running a store at NSC and keeping inventory is a challenge. We still plan to continue and keep a limited inventory in-house, but the bulk of the inventory will now be available online instead. The online options are excellent and varied – something for everyone – available for ordering 24/7 and sent straight to your house.
Instructions for ordering (including how to add the NSC Logo!!) are online.
Mentors
NSC’s Mentorship program for new members is an innovative approach to helping members acclimatize to our unique spirit. Between May to July, eight volunteer mentors helped “on-board” just over 70% of our new Full Members.
The Mentor program is unique amongst sailing clubs and, if you have any feedback, please let us know.